Independence, Mo. ? A man on trial for capital murder in the videotaped slaying and sexual torture of a 41-year-old woman will not dispute most of the charges against him, his lawyer said Friday.

But defense attorney Tom Jacquinot said in his opening statement in Jackson County Circuit Court that there will be questions about whether Richard Davis, 43, deliberated before killing Marsha Spicer.

“A confession is a confession,” Jacquinot said. “A videotape is a videotape. Nobody is going to come here today and say these things didn’t happen.”

Davis faces 40 felony counts, including capital murder, kidnapping and rape in the May 2006 death of Spicer, of Independence. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Jackson County assistant prosecutor Ted Hunt said in his opening statement that Davis and his girlfriend, Dena Riley, lured Spicer to his Independence apartment and “did not intend to let her leave alive.”

Hunt showed the jury and judge several slides from videotapes the couple had made of themselves brutalizing and raping Spicer while her hands and eyes were covered with duct tape. Hunt also said Davis beat, raped and strangled Spicer, while his girlfriend smothered her during a sex act.

The trial for Riley, 42, is scheduled for next year.

Davis and Riley also are charged in neighboring Clay County with capital murder in the April 2006 suffocation of Michelle Huff-Ricci, 36. Her charred, skeletal remains were found in May 2006 in rural Clay County, just north of Independence.

Ricci’s death came to light after Davis and Riley were captured in southwest Missouri after a five-day manhunt and brought back to the Kansas City area to be charged in Spicer’s death. Police have said both defendants led investigators to Ricci’s remains.

Riley and Davis also have been indicted in Kansas on a federal charge of kidnapping a 5-year-old southeast Kansas girl related to Davis after fleeing the Kansas City area.

The courtroom seats were filled with family and friends of the victims, some of whom had to leave when slides of Spicer’s dead body were shown. Davis sat quietly at the defense table, and did not appear to look at any of the slides of the women.

Hunt told the jury that evidence would include a video of what he called “the death scene,” in which Davis and Riley attack Spicer on the bed in Davis’ apartment.

The couple later put Spicer’s body in the bathroom tub and poured a container of bleach over her to destroy DNA evidence, the prosecutor said.